Rain Or Shine... It's Open Wheel Time

Well, I am back. I moved into a new house so that I have more room to store useless racing memorabilia. Now things are back to normal, and I was able to catch up on the open wheel happenings this weekend. And what a weekend it was. Oh, but wait, road courses are boring parades.

- British Grand Prix

I am noticing that Void is getting spoiled. I gave him a call to congratulate him on another BMW podium finish. To my surprise he greeted me with anger in his voice. It seems that he now expects 1 - 2 finishes and nothing less. This is probably why Bernie limits the number of non Ferrari wins every season. Common Void.. even BMW is surprised at the success.

What a fun race to watch. It reminded me of last February here in Milwaukee when we were blessed with 743 feet of snow during the running of our "Drive Like an Idiot" festival.

Again the broadcast on FOX was squeezed down, so I didn't see the final remarks. I heard that there was a friendly exchange between Lewis and Nico. It's nice to see (or hear of) a pulse during those interviews once in a while.

-IndyCar Watkins Glen

They really need to start organizing these parades better. They keep getting out of order, and it really irritates me. Now I actually have to watch the race to see who is going to win.

Congrats to Ryan Hunter-Reay on his first IndyCar win. Can you imagine the the look on Rahal Sr's face when someone walked down to the N/H/L pits and notified him that his car had won? He must have been really excited.

To some it may appear that Dixon made an error in judgment during the caution on lap 49. It is very simple folks. Let us examine the bizarre relationship between this and another occurrence during the race.

- Briscoe took out Danica at the Indy 500.
- Dixon bad mouthed Danica last week.

My sources have never failed me. They have tried to rob my house.. but they have never failed me in a journalistic sense. They claim that during the pre-race activities, both drivers were handed a note written on GoDaddy letterhead that simply stated "Down on the 40th lap". I find it strange that Danica asked the Target crew for a front wing inspection around that time. Motivation perhaps????


- Other news

This is probably old news as I am not able to keep up with Drag Racing as much as I wish I could, but the NHRA has decided to cut the Top Fuel race distance from 1,320 feet to 1,000 feet. The decision was made in response to the death of Scott Kalitta several weeks ago. The change is temporary until they can determine a way to reduce some of the risk.

Good old Dario is out of a ride after a period of injury and a failure to qualify for Texas and Sonoma. Chip Ganassi was on WindTunnel yesterday and made it clear that Dario can still race on one of his teams.. just not a Sprint Cup team. I am not quite sure how to interpret that, but he made it sound like it was up to Dario. So is he giving him a choice between IndyCar and Rolex? And if it is IndyCar, could there be a third car?

Lastly.. I would like to say thank you to a Mr Juan Pablo Montoya. As much as I dislike the guy.. he had me cheering like a maniac when he derailed Kyle "I Am The Greatest" Busch. Of course afterward he was called to the the Nascar "Hauler" and was threatened by shotgun and broken beer bottle. Off topic... what in DW's name is the Nascar "Hauler"? Do they server bacon in there? Why is it not sponsored? What does it haul? Further investigation produced a recent image of the "Nascar Hauler":





Ah yes... when the Hauler is Rockin...

Professor Apex: Merging Web Traffic

Some fans are skeptical of the open wheel merger hype. Recently I read a forum post that suggested that increased interest only exists in the minds of fans and biased sports writers. Refusing to drink Tony's Kool-Aid, they refute the idea that attendance is up and ratings are high.

The whole rating and attendance debate is well covered in the thousands of articles and forum posts already on the web. I would like to introduce another piece of evidence your honor. I believe that web traffic is an excellent indicator of interest levels.

To begin with, I queried the "all knowing" Google. They have made available an excellent tool called Google Trends which provides search trend data. In order to steer clear of the IndyCar vs CCWS issue, I used a search term that hopefully covers both of them. I chose the term "Open Wheel". The data provided for this year is limited to the beginning of July, so I sampled data between January and July of each year. Also, I limited search traffic to the United States. After performing some Microsoft Excel voodoo, I came up with the following results.

Year - Average Data Volume
2005 - 0.275652
2006 - 1.083478
2007 - 1.668182
2008 - 2.254545

The measurement Google uses is scaled. So a 1.0 value is considered average within the time period measured. The first thing I noticed is the drastic jump in 2006. I believe this can be explained by how Google handles small amounts of traffic. If traffic falls below a certain threshold, it is not recorded. I am theorizing that the search term was near the threshold, and some months were not included. Based on this information it appears that the term has been steadily rising at an even pace since 2005. Sadly they do not have data available from before 2005.

This hardly proves or disproves any kind of giant increase due the the merger. But I did find one other interesting item. Google also includes a graph which charts the number of related news items it has crawled. This seems to have increased dramatically:



It seems that news articles related to open wheel in the US jumped significantly around the time of the merger. This is probably no surprise to anyone but I found it interesting nonetheless.

By comparison, here are the result for "Stock Car".

Year - Average Data Volume
2005 - 1.073636
2006 - 1.031364
2007 - 0.927143
2008 - 0.948571

The term "Nascar" shows similar results. Initially I looked this up to see if racing related traffic in general showed an increase, and it appears that these two terms have decreased. Interesting...

Finally, I pulled the Alexa trends for the year. Alexa is a piece of software that tracks web activity. I ran a comparison between Nascar.com and IndyCar.com. Here is what I found.

This is overall page views. Nascar has the upper hand no doubt. You can see that there is a small increase on IndyCar.com though.



This is Alexa's ranking value. Rank is determined by analyzing both the page view traffic and visitor data. As you can see, the site has increased dramatically in this area.



Thus ends my lecture. I think open wheel in the US is neither drifting into oblivion, nor is it the hottest thing since Rick James. I leave you to your own conclusions.

Steady Eddie

Eddie Gossage stunned and amazed racing fans around the world, when he made it known that ovals are the future of AOW. Imagine the GM of the Texas Motor Speedway saying such a thing.

Anyone who knows me understands that I am an oval fan. Void and I argue constantly over what is more interesting to watch. I am hardly a road course evangelist, but at the same time I can enjoy them and I do understand why they are important. Eddie may know what sells, but he hardly speaks for the millions of race fans who have denounced the Nascar formula. Let us use our brains a little Eddie:

Ovals are not a magic pill

Anyone who believes it is simplifying a very complex problem. Sprint cars run exclusively on oval tracks and have yet to draw large television ratings. Let us remember that the IRL's oval ratings were hardly spectacular during the split.

You cannot gain ground on NASCAR by emulating NASCAR

Eddie is worried that the IRL will remain a "niche sport". I disagree. The Craftsmen Truck series is just that, and it is having sponsorship problems. The only thing that differentiates the series is the vehicles. It lacks the individuality that attracts the interest of fans. Why would I watch that series, when I could watch the Cup boys?

Oval parades do exist

An oval is fully capable of producing a boring race. Not every oval produces side by side racing. Super speedways are sometimes the biggest offenders. When you reduce the dependency on driver skill and the car setup becomes the primary factor, you have a parade. Plain and simple, doesn't matter what type of course you are on.

It is about the drivers

If Dale JR, Jeff Gordon, Graham Rahal, and Danica were to race against each other at Long Beach, would anyone really care about what course it was on? I guarantee you that the ratings would be through the roof.

An oval only series will alienate many talented and marketable drivers. Marco and Graham have yet to win an oval race. Winning those races gained them credibility and increased their popularity to some degree.

The IRL barely escaped with its life

Eddie reminds us that the IRL "won" the war. Is this just a man speaking what he believes? Let us remember that he is still bitter about the Firehawk 600 disaster. Maybe he has a right to be angry, but his statements prove to me that he does not have AOW's interest in mind. Anyone who willingly picks at the slow healing scabs of our sport should be despised by fans on both sides.

The fact is, both sides were dying. If Eddie's brain was still functioning properly, he would realize this. People are becoming interested again in open wheel, and we didn't have to add ovals to do it. We have stopped bickering and lashing out at each other. We are focused on the product again, and it is already working. So thanks for the advice Eddie, but no thanks.

NASCAR Fans Celebrate Their Ratings Victory

It seems this year's Coca-Cola 600 drew a bigger TV audience than its ‘main competition', the Indy 500. So? Like that's a big surprise or something? NASCAR has been trouncing IndyCar in terms of TV viewership (and just about everything else) for more years now than I can remember.

Well, even if it isn’t exactly news, America's favorite form of Sports Entertainment is very proud that they snatched more viewers this Memorial Day weekend. NASCAR's Ramsey Poston had his take on the victory, "To have one of our regular races - one that isn't the Daytona 500 - outperform every other motorsport in America is great." I forget, are there other forms of motorsport in America besides NASCAB? It's getting hard to tell. But, yes Mr. Poston, your organization does still reign supreme.

There is, however, a light at the end of this stock car dominated tunnel. You see, the Figh'Hunred was actually able to outdraw NASCAR in our nation's biggest TV markets. And not by a small margin either. The overnight ratings (culled from the top 46 TV markets) show a 16% larger audience for the Indy 500 than the Coca-Cola 600. But once the rest of the country is accounted for, the margin flips to 4% in the other direction.

I think the message from all of this is clear. In major (and not so major) metropolitan areas, the Indy 500 is making a comeback. In rural areas - some might say ‘hill folk’ areas - it’s not even on the radar. You’ve come a long way Indy, but ye still have so far to go…

Vitor's Flying Front Page

IndyCar made front page of the sports section today here in Milwaukee. The Journal Sentinel had an amazing shot of Vitor Meira in flight. Surprisingly, they covered Ryan's win with minimal mention of Danica.

Marks Milwaukee Mile Memo

Good show at the Mile all around

We were treated to a good show at the Mile over the weekend. Perfect weather complimented the exceptional schedule. We arrived at the track early on both Saturday and Sunday and easily found things to do and see the entire time. It seemed like attendance was up both days, and one of the homeowners near the track mentioned that he was able to charge more this year for parking due to the unification.

The addition of the vintage display and the 150 mile USAR Hooters Pro Cup stock car race may have contributed as well. I found the stock car race very interesting. I guess the Pro Cup series consists of two divisions, north and south. For this race they pulled the two together to race on the largest track the series has ever run on. I have to admit that it was fun to watch the 40+ cars, but it hardly converted me from open wheel racing. The vintage display was amazing. Those guys must have been running close to 100mph at times. The fans really got a kick out of it, and I was amazed at how quiet "the wedge" really was.

And it was great watching them honor Rick Mears for his first win 30 years ago... in a Penske Car.


Indy pro series puts on another great show

Again, the IndyPro series put on a great show. Like always the competition was wild, with three wide action and lots of brave moves. Local driver Bobby Wilson decided to fire up the local fans with a hometown win. But not before getting into a shoving match with Jeff Simmons. Things like that make for an awkward podium ceremony.
(Update: IMS Radio tricked me. It was not Jeff Simmons. It was really Pablo Donoso and Micky Gilbert)

Dixon is the man

The last two weeks have drastically changed my view of Scott Dixon. His Indy 500 win earned my respect, but this weekend he made me a fan. Sunday we attended the autograph session and had a chance to meet all of the drivers. I brought a picture I had taken last weekend in hopes of getting him to sign it. Not only did he sign it, but he took great interest in when it was taken, and studied it for quite a while. I then congratulated him and grinned and thanked me. About 10 seconds later it hit me... I just spoke with an Indy 500 winner. Later that day I witnessed him driving next to Briscoe giving him a congratulatory gesture after losing by seconds.

When I got home I read something interesting on the back of Scott's bio. His motto is "Under the radar". Shortly before reading it, my Father reminded me of something (he's is a Nascar fan.. but I try not to hold it against him). Back in 2000 we were watching the Indy Lights race at the Mile, and Scott Dixon won it. My Dad remembered how impressive the run was. What I now realize is that Scott really does fly under the radar. He is a down to earth, avoids the high profile media stuff, and just drives the wheels off of his car. I kind of like that...

Danica ...

For those of you who dislike Danica, this was a great week for you. For those that like her, not such a great week. Briscoe not only put her a lap down, but went on to win the race. I am not sure if Danica was throwing a little fit at the end of the race, but she really burned through the pits after the race was over. Maybe I am reading to much into it, but it looked like she trying to show her disgust.

Poor Vitor

Victim of the evil turn two... twice. During the autograph session Vitor told me that the guys were still working on fixing his car after the qualifying incident. This was at 9:30 AM. Later on I read on track forum that he went out and bought his guys pizza that night just to help out. After his fantastic run last weekend, it is really a shame. This guy deserves a good run, and hopefully things will start to shape up for him and the Panther team.

Moving on

Well, I am kind of bummed that I have to watch the rest of the season on TV. The last two weeks have been great, and the unification has really contributed to that. The difference between this year and last is night and day. Fans are far more interested, drivers more eager, and the atmosphere is just much more lively. Onward to Texas.. let's see what Eddie has cooking..

2008 IRL Milwaukee Mile

IndyCar:The Next Generation

Well, its official. This whole season is one big conspiracy created by Tony George and Gene Simmons. Void.. I apologize for mocking your crazy conspiracy theories. As I was sitting in the stands at the Milwaukee Mile, watching qualifying for tommorows running of the AJ Foyt 225, I witnessed something unbelievable. Something that even the writers of Lost couldn't come up with. Graham Rahal... a rookie and member of a transitional team.. almost took pole on an oval. Only to be stolen away by last minute qualifier Marco Andretti. This must be a conspiracy, because things like this do not just happen. I am just waiting for the WWE style coverage to begin. It makes sense, they are already dressing Marco up in costumes...

So, one week after Indy... the excitement is back. The turnout was excellent, and I hope its a sign of things to come tomorrow. Aside from the two big names in the front, there were some other surprises:

- All morning Will Power was running some serious fast laps. He ended up qualifying 4th, which was surprising since I thought he was going to qualify higher. In all, four transitional teams qualified in the top ten.

- Marty Roth destroyed his car in a morning practice session. Surprising, because I bet that he would destroy it while hauling it out of storage yesterday.

- Justin Wilson... what happened?

- Vitor.... what happened?

- I was surprised that there were not more pit incidents, considering the limited space. I am guessing these guys are more alert than ever this weekend. I wish these guys a safe race tomorrow.


So, I am in the final stretch of my two week IndyCar binge. And tomorrow's grand finale might just make me a conspiracy believer yet. Check out my pics below...

2008 IRL Milwaukee Qualifying

Briscoe Thankful For IMS Security

Qualifying begins tomorrow at the Milwaukee Mile for the AJ Foyt 225. They will be using the 4 lap qualifying format, which is a first for the track. Kudos to the Mile. They have put together an outstanding schedule compared to last year. In addition to practice and qualifying tomorrow they have added a 150 mile stock car race. Race day will include the vintage event and Indy Lights.

Ryan Briscoe was on the local radio this morning and of course they asked the Danica question. He mentioned the broken suspension and showed his appreciation to the chief of IMS security. He stated that he wasn't sure what the proper response would have been should she have made it to his stall. It sounds like the two have talked since then and have agreed to move on, although I doubt they are on good terms.

Update: Listen to the interview here

Well, on to week #2 for me. We will be heading to the track tomorrow morning. Luckily this time it's only a 10 minute trip.

Milwaukee Is Nothing New

One question has been on the mind of all open wheel fans this year: When will the transitional teams become competitive on the ovals. With Rahal's win at St. Petersburg, it was proven that N/H/L had no problem adapting to the Dallara/Honda combo. The greatest disadvantage thus far has been the unfamiliar tracks. But this changes this weekend.

CCWS did not run at Milwaukee last year, but had the years previous. The last winner was none other than Sébastien Bourdais driving for N/H/L. Still, this is not a new track for these teams and it is not a super speedway. Admittedly, it is still an oval, but the effect of car setup lessens when a driver can't run flat out. The months worth of practice at Indy will not hurt these teams either.

It is likely that this is still not enough to put them in the front with the big 3, but hopefully it is enough for a decent finish. Keyword being finish. I doubt N/H/L wants to spend yet another week repairing cars.

My First Indy 500: Final Thoughts

I am still trying to process my trip to Indy last weekend since my brain was in overload mode the entire time. Now a few days later I am finally grasping the history behind that place. Before we left on Monday we stopped over at the museum on the advice of several Track Forum members. For anyone visiting for the first time it is a must. It puts things in perspective.

We also found time to take the track tour. The feeling you get while looking down the straightaway is just amazing. It's the same view shared by AJ Foyt, Mario Andretti, Bobby Rahal, Rick Mears, The Unsers, Eddie Cheever, Arie Luyendyke, Gordon Johncock, Emerson Fittapaldi, Scott Goodyear, Nigel Mansell, Tony Stewart, Gil de Ferran, and many many more. And everyone one of them probably felt the same way I did upon taking the first lap.

So now that it is over I feel that as a race fan, I have something that had been missing. I have enjoyed many motorsport events up until this point, but I consider them appetizers. And the possibility that this could be the re-birth of the 500 makes it even more special. Who knows what the future holds. Maybe attendance will dwindle or maybe things will continue to grow. It doesn't matter. Who is driving, or how many sponsors show up, is unimportant. It can't be dethroned by marketing campaigns and television ratings. The blood sweat and tears of both well known an unknown drivers who risked there lives on this track for a chance at one moment of glory has forever engraved its status as the "Greatest Spectacle In Racing".

I have finally published some of the pics I took. Feel free to take a look.

2008 Indy Museum

2008 IRL Indy 500

92nd Indy 500:The Morning After

We have a couple things we want to do this morning, and then its back home. We are a little bummed that the trip is over, but luckily Milwaukee is in 6 days. Did I mention 27 cars on a track under half the size of Indy?

Dixon Gets His

Scott Dixon put the beat down on that field today. TK said it in an interview before the race: "You don't chose to win at this place, it chooses you". TK himself was punished for messing with destiny. And he wasn't the only one.

It was a long day for us. We were at the track by 7:00 AM, so I am going to keep this brief. Plus I still need to finish watching the race coverage. They did not run it live here in Indy, so they are playing it now on local TV.

- I overheard Sarah Fisher on the scanner drop a few F-Bombs during the first spin out. I wonder if IRL has a policy on that. Not that I blame her. It seems as though there was a lack of communication with the safety team. She wanted to re-fire the car, but they began towing her. I can't remember her exact words, but it was something like "I don't know what these idiots are doing..."

- While the scanner was running, someone was listing off the top ten cars. I didn't catch which team it was, but they referred to Ed Carpenter as "Prince Edward". Someone else was referred to as "Junk In The Trunk".

- I think the helicopter flew through the balloons at the beginning of the ceremony. The result was many balloons almost getting stuck on the track. Luckily a gust of wind blew them up and over the fence, otherwise I suspect that the green flag would have been delayed.

- We were sitting between turn 3 and 4 in the North Vista. I will sit in those seats at every race I attend in the future. We had a perfect view of the TK/Sarah Dance, the Milka Spin, Rahal's Scrape, and Roth's Oil Dump.

- Speaking of Milka... I found myself saying to myself on every lap... "She is still in this?". And when she did lose it, I have to admit, she did a good job of avoiding the wall and other cars.

- Just Wilson was impressive in the beginning. To bad N/H/L had to end the day that way.

Ah, so much more to comment on but I am sunburned and light headed from breathing ethanol for 3 hours. When we get back tomorrow I am going to post some of the 400+ pics I took, so check back.

The 92nd Running Of The Indy 500: Race Day

Light Racing...

Things worked out well today. The sun was shining and hardly a cloud in the sky. We decided to skip the parade and head over to the track for the re-scheduled Freedom 100. It was a good choice in my opinion, those guys and gals know how to put on a show. Immediately they were running four wide on turn one and at one point were trying for five wide. There were a couple of short term lead changes, but it was Dillon Battistini's race to win. Nonetheless it was a very exciting race. And even with the parade in process downtown, the event still managed to draw a decent crowd.

We had a chance to walk around the track a little more today. We checked out the road course, and caught a glimpse of the garages. This place is amazing. You can walk for hours and still not cover everything.

Well, tomorrow is the big day. I am off to check my scanner frequencies.

Carb Day: First Impressions

Well, we made it down here for carb day. No thanks to the highway 65 closings. Luckily we had the GPS. I will stop complaining though. I consider myself privileged just to be here. Everything seemed unimportant the second I got my first glimpse of this amazing track.


It has been raining on and off the whole day, so we have yet to see track action. All events have been canceled due to weather, but the outlook for the weekend sounds much brighter. The racing gods have spoken however. My first vision of an IndyCar at full speed on the track will be the first green lap of the 500.


We only spent a few hours at the track, absorbing the sites and sounds, but it was long enough to attract the local media. While sitting in the bleachers we were interviewed by the Channel 13 Track Team and managed to get on tv for about .8 of a second. It has inspired me to pursue a career in racing commentary. Or maybe not.

27 At The Milwaukee Mile

I just heard on the local radio that the AJ Foyt 225 will run up to 27 cars this year. According to Jim Tretow (VP at the Mile), they plan to reconfigure the pit stalls if necessary. So it doesn't sound like we will be having Saturday bump action. Unless someone shows up with a 28th entry...

2008 Indy 500 Events: What To Do

I will be off to my first Indy 500 in 3 days, and as usual, I am just planning things now...

Luckily, the folks over at track forum provided me with loads of ideas. We will be arriving sometime Friday morning, if we can make it through Chicago traffic in a reasonable amount of time. If we can get there early enough, we may head right to the track. So here are some of things we might try to attend. It is probably not the most comprehensive list since this is a new event for me, but I figured I would share what others have been so kind to give me.


Friday Carb Day - Track: 10$ Admission

11:00AM - 12:00AM Indycar Practice (track)
(If we get there in time for this we may miss it anyway. The Track Forum folks told us that our first view of the cars at full speed should be the first green lap of the race itself)

12:00PM - 1:30PM Freedom 100 Race (track)
1:30PM -3:00PM Music by DJ Orion (track)
1:30PM -3:00PM Pit Stop Challenge (track)
3:00PM Vintage Car Laps (track)

3:30PM Carb Day Concert - STP
(Miller Lite Stage behind Hall of Fame Museum)

Carb Night Burger Bash 6:30 to 10 p.m. 96th Street Steakburgers,
Metropolis outdoor mall, Plainfield, Ind.

Saturday - Track: Free

Race fan clubs breakfast at the clarion hotel
8:00AM Gates Open
9:00AM-10:00AM Autograph Sessions (Pagoda Plaza)
10:30AM Drivers Meeting
12:00PM 500 Festival Parade (Downtown Indianapolis)

USAC midgets at Indianapolis Raceway Park
Silver Crowns at the Marion County Fairgrounds
Little 500 in Anderson

Other Things to Check Out

Museum Lap Around The Track Tour

Visit the fine folks at Camp & Brew
(Georgetown Rd to the Coke Lot on the left just past T4)

Misc Info

The official Indy 500 Schedule

Wingspotters Guide (Includes scanner frequencies) (pdf)

Driving Directions

Track Forum Indy Traditions

2008 Indy 500 STarting Lineup (pdf)

Spectator Info

Indy 500 Seating Guide
(Used this when to select the tickets. Great site..)

Great Stuff From Cheever/Goodyear

Just a quick blurb while watching the bump day coverage. I am trying to figure out what I am enjoying more... the qualifying runs... or the fireworks between Cheever and Goodyear.

Good stuff..

Pole Day, Paul Tracy, Indy Stuff For Me

Let the qualifications begin. It sounds like the weather will be nice today, hopefully a drastic change from the last week. Predictions are running wild and the rumor mill is churning.

The latest rumor is regarding none other than Paul Tracy. Not surprising since his name seems to come up on every instance of Ask The Expert these days. So rumor has it that if Penske can successfully qualify both drivers this weekend, he will make his spare car available to Walker Racing. Should this happen, PT could have a second weekend shot at qualifying. And with a Penske prepared car I think he would have a reasonable shot at a top 10 finish. But alas.. one must remind oneself that it is only a rumor.

In other cool news, I received my Indy 500 guest guide in the mail the other day. It also included a letter from Joie Chitwood. He said that he looks forward to having me there. And he even called me by name. Thats just how cool I am.

So here we go. I wish I could watch the coverage all day today, but I have to miss some of it. Luckily... I have a DVR.

Go TK.

Tony Stewart: Here Is Our Offer

Tony was back at IMS yesterday, looking to see some real racing action. They say he was there for his midget/sprint teams... but we all know the real reason. He has always been open to the idea of coming back. And not just for the 500.

"If I was going to come to Indianapolis again, I don't want to come and show up and run the month of May.

If I'm going to do it, I need to start at Homestead, and I need to run all the races leading up to the month of May to really feel like I'm being fair to the team and fair to myself."

I have always liked Tony, even though he drives for the dark side. He is one of the few drivers over there that doesn't drink the Kool-Aid. And even with all of his complaining, it would be great to see him run again. So Tony... what if we...


We promise no Pop Off valves (until 2010...maybe...)




We promise no GoodYear tires



We promise not to... well.. we're not sure.



We will continue to speculate